I had always thought that casseroles were something served in the generations past. Something June Cleaver would serve in her pretty dress after slaving in the kitchen all day. Well I do not and have never had a full day to slave away at the kitchen, I work at home and on the farm (I commuted to work for many years and sometimes over an hour away). So, timing is important. I decided to research it out of curiosity. A Casserole is French in origin and relatively recent. It always refers to something that is baked in the oven. There is most always meat, veggies and something crispy for a crust or covering. And cheese, usually there is cheese in it or on it. MMMMMM it does bring about memories from when I was a kid. As an adult I would usually avoid making them feeling that they were probably complex and involved lots of ingredients that I did not have. However, I still remember the delicious smell of my Mom's famous casseroles as it would fill the house. It seems that it would take forever til when we could actually sit down and eat it!
I buy large portions of meat and cook them in whatever I feel like for the day, whether in a crock pot, in the oven or on the stove. I am most inspired by what is around me in the kitchen and the time that I have to cook it in. Money has been an issue as a single Mom so I have had to strategize my food list and to make the most of it. One thing I hate is the waste of the left-overs! When I was a kid, I hated them and as Mom, I cringe when my kids will not touch them, even though they loved it when served fresh on the table the night before! Yikes what a challenge us Moms have! A cry heard from generations out of time of any mother on this planet! The waste of good food when there is not much to be had. Also, the time and love involved in preparing it and the pride of placing a new recipe on the table. They eat the meal and what to do with the rest of it? hmmmmm, throw it away? I think not! What I have discovered was the resurrection of the casserole. I found out that the basic casserole consists of a meat, as mentioned above and veggies, and a starcy binder such as potatoes, pasta, bread etc... Not so bad I thought! This was finally the solution of the left-over dilema. This way I can sneak in the food in a totally different presentation and presto! All of the food is gone!
Someone actually came over once and happened to look into my fridge and stated, "Wow, your fridge is empty!" I was initially upset at that and then thought about it a bit more. It was the day before shopping and before that comment I was quite proud. I hate wasting food as I mentioned and took great pride in that all of the food purchased was somehow consumed in every imaginative and creative way that I could think of! In this wasteful society where we think nothing of throwing half-eaten plates of food in the trash. This was the pinicle of living simple. It is not easy at all. So, the more I thought about why I got upset about that comment, I realized that it was based on my old life. As I live on a farm and find that some items are hard to come by in having to travel for things which were quite close before moving up here. I have seen how food is prepared and raised for that matter before ending up on a plate! I do love meat and will not take it out of my diet. Sorry, I do not want to go that simple. But, I appreciate it and want to make sure it is served with pride and not thrown in the trash. So, casseroles have been my saving grace on that waste issue!
Tinight I made a dish with left-over chicken I had cooked in the crockpot, some lentil soup, an onion cut in large pieces, chopped garlic, bacon cut into small pieces, and shredded cheese. I mixed all of it up in my large casserole dish and put over it a layer of breadcrumbs from all of the left-over bread we had. I preheated the oven for 350 degrees and then raised it up to 365 when I placed it inside the oven and baked it for 50 minutes! My picky youngest one had two servings! Yea! I take great pride in not wasting anything and I consider this another small victory from a creative and loving Mom. For I tell my girls that whenever I bake something from scratch for them or make something (I crochet their winter hats too!) I make it complete with Momma love! :)